Best reporting on guns in America

Update: With today’s shooting in Newtown, Conn., this article, first published July 24, 2012, unfortunately seems relevant again.

In the wake of last week’s shooting in Aurora, Colo., we’ve taken a step back and laid out the best pieces we could find about guns. They’re roughly organized by articles on rights, trafficking and regulation. And include your suggestions in comments.

The Houston gun show. Photo: Flickr/M. Glasgow

Gun Rights

Battleground America, New Yorker, April 2012 Jill Lepore’s thorough look at the evolution of U.S. gun laws u2014 from the Second Amendment, to the 1968 Gun Control Act, to the N.R.A.’s rise to political prominence u2014 is an excellent primer for the modern day gun debate. And provides great context for the articles below. Contributed by @Corinneavital

Felons Finding It Easy to Regain Gun Rights, New York Times, November 2011 In many states the restoration of gun rights for convicted felons is now either automatic or left to the discretion of judges under vague standards. Standards are similarly lax for those with a history of mental illness u2014 judges are often ill-equipped to make decisions without information about an applicant’s mental health.

Trafficking

The Truth About the Fast and Furious Scandal, Fortune, June 2012 An investigation into the fallout over Operation Fast and Furious suggests much of what’s been widely reported about the scandal is simply wrong. It doesn’t seem the ATF intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Based on confidential ATF documents and interviews with law enforcement agents, the piece claims the public charges are “replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies.” Fortune’s follow-up answers some criticisms raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley, among others. Congress is conducting an investigation into Fast and Furious.

Realco Guns Tied to 2,500 Crimes in D.C. and Maryland, Washington Post, October 2010 As part of a larger look at firearms’ paths from dealer to crime scene, the Post’s analysis of gun-trace data for Virginia found that a handful of dealers sold the bulk of crime guns. Realco, the store featured in this piece, sold four times the number of crime guns as the next highest dealer. The kicker? It was all perfectly legal.

U.S. Stymied as Guns Flow to Mexican Cartels, New York Times, April 2009 Before the ATF’s efforts to monitor gun-trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border became notorious, this article detailed how easy it was for straw purchasers to buy guns in the U.S. and get them across the border to Mexico, and how difficult it was for federal regulators to build a case against them. About 90 percent of the 12,000 guns recovered and traced in 2008 by Mexican officials came from U.S. dealers.

Regulation

Concealed gun law turns 10 years old, Booth Newspapers, June 2011 A decade after Michigan passed a law making it easier to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, hundreds of thousands have been issued. This multi-part series shows how regulations meant to keep track of who has concealed-carry licenses u2014 and whose should have been revoked u2014 are a mess. The New York Times has also analyzed the lack of oversight into the concealed-carry permit process in North Carolina, which loosened the requirements to obtain such permits in 1995.

Ineffective rules let gun stores endure, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 2010 The ATF is charged with inspecting the country’s 62,000 licensed gun dealers. But it’s rare for a permit to be revoked, and when it happens, stores often simply reopen with a new license in someone else’s name, or sell guns on the side through their personal collections. (This Washington Post database lets you see which dealers near you have had their licenses revoked.)

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